MALC Module 2 Study Guide - The New Home of ITIL …itsm.zone/samples/MALC.pdf · The ITIL® Course Managing Across the Lifecycle Page 1 of 32 Welcome to the Study Guide. This document

Module 2 Study Guide

ITIL® Managing Across the Lifecycle

The ITIL® Course Managing Across the Lifecycle

Page 1 of 32

Welcome to the Study Guide. This document is supplementary to the

information available to you online, and should be used in conjunction with the

videos, quizzes and exercises.

After your subscription to the course has finished online, you will still have the study guide to

help you prepare for the MALC exam - if you’ve not taken the exam by the time your

subscription expires.

Each Module of your course has its own study guide, including a review of the Module

information, exercise answers and any additional diagrams or material mentioned. By the end

of the course, you’ll have 7 chapters that build up into the full guide.

This Chapter contains the Study Guide information for Module 2 – Communication and Stakeholder Management. Use this Study Guide in conjunction with your own notes that you make as you progress

through the course. You may prefer to print it out, or use it on-screen.

After each Lesson, you can consolidate what you have learnt whilst watching the videos and

taking the quizzes by reading through the chapter of the Study Guide. If you progress on to do

the MALC exam, your Study Guide will provide you with vital revision information.

Remember, your Study Guide is yours to keep, even after your subscription to the MALC Course

has finished.

ITIL® is a registered trade mark of AXELOS Limited. The Swirl logo™ is a trade mark of AXELOS Limited. Text in "italics and quotation marks" is drawn from the ITIL core volumes Quoted ITIL text is from Service Strategy, Service Design, Service Transition, Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement © Copyright AXELOS Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS Ltd © IT Training Zone Ltd. 2014 unless otherwise stated. All rights reserved

Communication and Stakeholder Management


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Communication and Stakeholder Management ..................................................................... 1

Table of Contents .................................................................................................................. 2

Study Guide Icons .................................................................................................................. 4

Module Contents ................................................................................................................... 5

Lesson 1 – Business Relationship Management ...................................................................... 6

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 6

Business Relationship Management and Service Strategy ................................................... 8

Strategy Management for IT Services ............................................................................. 8

Service Portfolio Management ....................................................................................... 8

Demand Management ................................................................................................... 8

Financial Management for IT Services ............................................................................ 8

Business Relationship Management and Service Design ..................................................... 9

Project Management ..................................................................................................... 9

Service Level Management ............................................................................................. 9

Service Catalogue Management ..................................................................................... 9

Availability Management ............................................................................................. 10

Capacity Management ................................................................................................. 10

IT Service Continuity Management ............................................................................... 10

Business Relationship Management and Service Transition .......................................... 11

Change Management ................................................................................................... 11

Knowledge Management ............................................................................................. 11

Service Validation and Testing ...................................................................................... 11

Release and Deployment Management ........................................................................ 11

Business Relationship Management and Service Operation .......................................... 12

Request Fulfilment ....................................................................................................... 12

Incident Management .................................................................................................. 12

Table of Contents


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Business Relationship Management and CSI ................................................................. 13

Lesson 2 –Stakeholder Management and Communication .................................................... 15

Lesson 3 – Communication across the lifecycle..................................................................... 21

Service Models ................................................................................................................ 21

Communication in Service Design .................................................................................... 24

Communication in Service Transition ............................................................................... 25

General issues .............................................................................................................. 25

Communication planning ............................................................................................. 27

Methods of communication ......................................................................................... 28

Communication in Service Operation ........................................................................... 28


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Watch out for these icons as you use your Study Guide. Each icon highlights an important piece of information.

Tip – this will remind you of something you need to take note of, or give

you some exam guidance.

Definition – key concept or term that you need to understand and

remember.

Role – a job title or responsibility associated with a process or function.

Exercise Solution – suggested solution to one of the exercises you will

complete throughout the course.

Goal or Objective – for a particular process or core volume.

Study Guide Icons


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This Module covered communication and stakeholder management

We studied:

Business relationship management Stakeholder management Communication across the lifecycle

Module Contents


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In this Lesson we studied:

The coordination of Business Relationship Management across the lifecycle

The role of Business Relationship Management in communication

Introduction

Remember

Business Relationship Management exists to build and maintain

customer satisfaction

All the Service Management processes have building and maintaining customer satisfaction as

an aim, but as a consequence of meeting some more immediate objective. For example,

Information Security Management will increase customer satisfaction by ensuring that the

security requirements of the business are met. The success of Information Security

Management will judged in the context of meeting security requirements. But the measure of

success of Business Relationship Management will be customer satisfaction itself.

Business Relationship Management is the key process for ensuring that all of the Service

Provider’s activities right across the Service Lifecycle are aligned with the needs of the

customer.

Business Relationship Management (BRM) develops a deep understanding of the business and

a knowledge of exactly what the business wants, right across all Service Provider activities. It

ensures that this knowledge is communicated to the appropriate functions and that there are

no misunderstandings. Misunderstandings can occur on either side. The business can have false

Lesson 1 – Business Relationship Management


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or unrealistic expectations about what the Service Provider has committed to do, or indeed

what it can do. The Service Provider can fail to understand what the business expects.

The BRM process can be triggered by the customer or by Service Management processes.

Triggers from the business can include requests for change, opportunities for Service Provider

assistance, and complaints. Service Management triggers include Demand Management and

Capacity Management needing information about patterns of business activity.

All these instances should be logged so that they can be properly managed. For internal

customers, a Service Management tool would be used. For external customers, a Customer

Relationship Management system will probably be implemented.

The BRM process depends on a number of other important tools which we’ll look at next. In

each case the tool provides a database or structured document that contains a single reference

place to record a particular type of information. These tools are:

The Service Provider must record information about all the customers who use its

services. The Customer Portfolio is the tool used for this

The Service Portfolio records information about services across their lifecycle from

conception through operation to retirement

The Customer Agreement Portfolio is used to manage all service contracts and

agreements between the Service Provider and its customers. Not all of the information

will refer to signed contracts and SLAs: the Service Provider makes a commitment to the

customer before an SLA is actually signed. The Customer Agreement Portfolio is usually

managed by Service Level Management

The Application Portfolio identifies available applications and their functionality.

Remember that an application is not a service. The service is what the customer buys.

An application delivers some of the functionality the service needs. Often, a service will

be underpinned by two or more applications, and a single application can underpin

more than one service

The Project Portfolio contains information about all projects


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Business Relationship Management and Service Strategy

Strategy Management for IT Services

Business Relationship Management provides Strategy Management for IT Services with

information about what the customers need and why they need it. This helps Strategy

Management develop appropriate strategies and plans.

Service Portfolio Management

Ideally new customer demand will be satisfied using existing services, whether by repackaging

service options, or by enhancing services. Business Relationship Management will determine

the best way of satisfying new demand. If new services are required, it will:

Work with Service Portfolio Management to identify stakeholders for the project

Define the outcomes and strategic requirements

Work with the business to develop a business case and ensure that adequate funding is

agreed

Demand Management

Business Relationship Management will work with the customer to identify anticipated patterns

of business activity for potential new services, and the business factors that influence them.

Financial Management for IT Services

Business Relationship Management interfaces with Financial Management for IT Services in

several ways:

It finds out what value the customer attaches to a service and how much it is willing to

pay

Some services will support a number of internal customers, though not necessarily to

the same degree. Business Relationship Management will work with the business to

identify how the costs of the service will be shared between them

Some service costs will be directly related to service usage. Business Relationship

Management will find out about anticipated levels of usage which will help when

drawing up budgets


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Business Relationship Management and Service Design To be successful, Service Design needs significant involvement and commitment from the

business. Business Relationship Management, with its knowledge of the business and the

relationships it cultivates with key stakeholders, plays a major role in getting the required

cooperation.

During the development of a design there are choices and, possibly, compromises to be made.

BRM can help to get the business to approach these situations in a constructive way.

The stakeholders for a new IT service may come from different business units, each with its

own priorities and requirements. Often there are conflicts across business units. Business

Relationship Management can help to mediate in these situations.

As we saw earlier, during the progress of the design compromises may need to be made, and

these compromises may relate to cost. Financial Management for IT Services will be tracking

costs against the investment that was envisaged in Service Strategy. If costs begin to escalate

then either more funding may be needed or some compromises may be made to warranty or

utility. Business Relationship Management will work with the business to address such issues in

a constructive way.

Project Management

Business Relationship Management will assist Project Management in on-going communication

and liaison with the business. When a project needs the involvement of user staff, as part of

requirements engineering for example, then Business Relationship Management will identify

the staff and get agreement for their involvement.

Service Level Management

Business Relationship Management and Service Level Management are closely related

processes. Both work with customers, and both are interested in relationship-building. The

difference lies in their perspectives. Business Relationship Management is concerned with the

strategic and the tactical. Service Level Management is concerned with the tactical and

operational. Business Relationship Management can help Service Level Management to identify

the appropriate person from the business to negotiate service level targets. If there are

differences of opinion between business units about what the service level requirements are, it

can mediate.

Service Catalogue Management

You have probably learnt on a previous course that what constitutes a specific service is not

necessarily straightforward. Often, the best approach is to say that the service is what the


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customer regards as the service. Business Relationship Management can help Service Catalogue

Management to get the customer to defining just what it is they are buying.

Availability Management

Service availability is the most important aspect of service quality for the customer, and it is

notoriously difficult to measure. Measuring the availability of components is easy, but what is

important to users is end-to-end availability. There are various approaches, some of which

might be quite expensive. The crucial thing is that the business should understand and agree

the measure, and that the availability metrics we publish truly reflect the user experience.

Business Relationship Management can work with the business to reach agreement.

Capacity Management

Capacity Management will need detailed information from the business to develop an accurate

Capacity Plan. Some information will come from Demand Management, but some will come

from the business. Business Relationship Management can help to get the information.

IT Service Continuity Management

ITSCM needs to understand the business impact of service interruptions, and the required

recovery timescales. Business Relationship Management will facilitate this.


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Business Relationship Management and Service Transition As with Service Design, customer involvement is required all through the transition of a new or

changed service. Business Relationship Management can get that involvement.

Change Management

Business Relationship Management:

May raise RFCs on behalf of the business

Work to ensure customer involvement through the life of a change; for example to

assess the impact of, and to schedule, a change

Knowledge Management

Business Relationship Management ensures that any business requirements for knowledge are

addressed by Knowledge Management, as well as ensuring that the business provides any

knowledge needed by the Service Provider.

Service Validation and Testing

The Service Validation and Testing process requires the involvement of the business in

designing the tests and in carrying out the testing. Business Relationship Management can

ensure that users are available to participate in user acceptance testing.

Release and Deployment Management

Business Relationship Management will coordinate the scheduling of releases, and ensure

participation in training, deployment and pilots. It can also acts as a channel for any questions

or concerns that the business might have.


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Business Relationship Management and Service Operation Business Relationship Management:

Can identify changes in use by the business

Some problems or complaints may arise from design deficiencies and so cannot be

resolved through the usual routes, and may need the involvement of the business at a

higher level than normal

Request Fulfilment

Business Relationship Management may be needed to encourage the business and its users to

utilize the Request Fulfilment process rather than traditional means. It may even submit

requests on behalf of VIPs.

Incident Management

Business Relationship Management is involved in the handling of major incidents in order to

ensure that in spite of the disruption the business maintains a positive view of IT.


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Business Relationship Management and CSI A major role for Business Relationship Management is conducting customer satisfaction surveys

and using these as a basis for improvement activities.

The reports produced by Continual Service Improvement are the basis for reporting

achievement back to the business. Customers can overlook the great job the IT is doing:

Business Relationship Management will remind them.

Business Relationship Management has concerns that overlap with Service Level Management.

Both will be involved in service review meetings and Business Relationship Management will

monitor any remedial actions arising from a service breach.

The Seven-step Improvement Process

Business Relationship Management can assist in identifying business priorities and concerns,

and in developing business cases for improvement projects.

Remember

Business Relationship Management plays a key role in anchoring

Service Provider activities to the business right across the lifecycle. It

is an essential ingredient for the successful integration of Service

Management processes across the lifecycle.


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Business Relationship Management and Communication

Business Relationship Management communicates:

Customer needs to the Service Provider

Customer expectations to the Service Provider

Service achievements to the business in order to maintain high customer satisfaction

Changes to the customer environment that could have service implications

Business requirements for new services

If the BRM process is missing or ineffective, the communication between customer and Service

Provider will be poor. This leads to misunderstanding and can significantly affect the overall

relationship between the two parties.


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In this lesson we studied:

The stakeholders for a Service Provider organization Managing stakeholders

Stakeholders A stakeholder is someone who has in interest in a project (or service or organization). They

could be impacted by or in a position to harm or benefit the project, service or organisation.

Within the Service Provider organization there are many stakeholder groups, for example the

Service Desk, support teams and application teams. There are other stakeholder groups outside

of the Service Provider:

The customers of a Service Provider are the people that define and agree the S.L.A.

targets. The relationship between a Service Provider and its customers is not necessarily

commercial. Internal customers work in the same organization and the relationship is

not commercial. External customers work for a third party and the relationship is

commercial

The users are those who use services on a routine basis

Suppliers are third-parties who supply goods or services that are needed to deliver IT

services

In practice there will be more stakeholder groups. Not all of our customers, for example, will

have the same interests or an equal power to influence events. Stakeholders must be identified

on a case by case basis.

Lesson 2 –Stakeholder Management and Communication


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Stakeholder Management The success or failure of any change initiative often depends on how well the stakeholders buy-

in to the change. At the start of any project the stakeholder groups should be identified and

plans made either to get their cooperation or neutralize their opposition.

The starting point is to identify each stakeholder group. The members of a stakeholder group

should be easily identifiable – we are dealing with individuals here, not abstract groups. So, ‘all

company workers in California’ is an easily identifiable group; but ‘all employees who welcome

change’ is not. Some individuals may belong to more than one group of stakeholders.

Next, we should understand and document how the project might impact them, and how they

might impact the project. For example, do they see the project as a threat or an opportunity?

What specific aspects of the project are relevant to them? What special knowledge or

experience might they bring to the project?

Now we are in a position to determine how the project will engage with the stakeholders. For

example, one-on-one meetings, workshops, the intranet, social media and so on. We will be

able to engage directly with some stakeholders but for others we may need to use some

intermediary. It’s difficult to engage directly with the public, for example.

The next step to successful stakeholder management is to determine what information to

communicate. The information should be tailored to address the concerns and interests of each

stakeholder group. This encompasses what information should be communicated and what

level of detail.

Remember that communication is two-way. Stakeholder management is not just about

delivering information to stakeholders it’s also about learning from them. It’s about getting

feedback and acting on it – so a feedback mechanism must be included.


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Stakeholder Maps

Service Transition Fig. 5.6 Example of a stakeholder map © Copyright AXELOS Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS Ltd

It’s often helpful to represent stakeholders and their interests graphically using a stakeholder

map. A high level stakeholder map is shown above.

More detailed maps will be developed as a project proceeds.


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Power-impact Matrix

Service Transition Fig. 5.7 Power impact matrix © Copyright AXELOS Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS Ltd

Potentially, there are a lot of stakeholders and we have limited time and resources to engage

with them. No stakeholder should be ignored, but our efforts should be directed where they

will count the most.

The diagram above illustrates a power impact matrix which we can use to prioritize

stakeholders. The vertical axis indicates the impact of the project on the stakeholder. The

greater the impact, the higher up the stakeholder will appear.

The horizontal axis indicates the influence of the stakeholder on the project. The greater the

influence the further to the left the stakeholder will appear.

Most of our efforts should be focused on stakeholders in the top-left area.


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As the project moves forward:

Stakeholders change: individuals leave, new ones appear

The interests and influence of stakeholder changes. People whose support we needed

to get approval for a project do not have the same involvement as implementation

approaches

The level of commitment of stakeholders will change. Those who were opposed initially

may have been won over. Others who were once neutral may have become hostile

Stakeholder analysis and management is not a one-off task at the start of the project. It should

be continually revisited through the project so that changes such as these are identified and

appropriate action taken.

Exercise – Stakeholder Management

This lesson included an exercise to look at stakeholder management. If you didn’t have time to

complete the exercise during the lesson, why not attempt it now?

Exercise

The Bank in the Case Study is working to integrate the recently-acquired banks into its core

operations. You are responsible for expanding the internet banking service to include their

customers.

What challenges might you face in identifying and managing the stakeholders?


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Exercise Solution

Remember that this is NOT a definitive answer. These are suggestions. You may

have thought of other challenges – that’s fine.

The challenges mainly relate to stakeholders in the recently-acquired banks.

Identifying dotted-line or matrix managers

Cultural issues may impact who you need to engage with. A strictly

hierarchical company will require you to follow the chain of

command. Often this is driven by the culture of the company you are

working in.

Cultural issues can also have implications for how you engage. Can

you communicate directly with front-line staff or must you go

through their line managers?

Lack of personal knowledge of the people involved. How much

influence do they really have? What is the best way of dealing with

this particular person?

Different regulatory or legal frameworks.

Are there unions or other staff organizations that must be

considered? What influence do they have?

Has the acquisition been controversial? Do we need to consider the

press? Or politicians?

Has the project any implications for existing suppliers? Should we be

concerned?

How much power does a manager actually have? In some

organizations a person may be just a figurehead with the real power

lying elsewhere.

Different languages and time zones will present communication

challenges

Stakeholders will be widely-separated geographically.


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In this lesson we studied:

The use of Service Models to aid communication on Service Strategy and value creation

Communication during design, transition, operation and Continual Service Improvement

Service Models

Service

Model

“A model that shows how service assets interact with

customer assets to create value”

A Service Model describes the service in terms of:

Its structure – its configuration items and how they relate

Its dynamics such as activities and interfaces including communication and coordination

A Service Model might include documents such as:

Flowcharts and workflow diagrams

Dataflow diagrams

Infrastructure diagrams

This list is NOT exhaustive.

Lesson 3 – Communication across the lifecycle


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Service Strategy Fig. 3.33 Dynamics of a service model © Copyright AXELOS Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS Ltd

The diagram above is an example of how the dynamics of a web-based retail service can be

represented. It shows some of the components of the service

“Service models have a number of uses, especially in service portfolio management, including:

Understanding what it will take to deliver a new service

Identifying critical service components, customer assets or service assets – and then

ensuring that they are designed to cope with the required demand

Illustrating how value is created

Mapping the teams and assets that are involved in delivering a service, and ensuring

that they understand their impact on the customer’s ability to achieve their business

outcomes

As a starting point for designing new services

As an assessment tool for understanding the impact of changes to existing services

As a means of identifying whether new services can be delivered using existing assets

If not, then assessing what type of investment would be required to deliver the service


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Identifying the interface between technology, people and processes required to develop

and deliver the service.”

A Service Model is created in Service Strategy and used across the lifecycle. For example:

It provides the starting point for Service Designers. It provides an overall architecture of

the service and it describes what the business will use it for

Service Transition will find the Service Model useful for planning and executing testing

Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement will also find Service Models

useful

Service Operation teams can use the impacts and dependencies documented in a

Service Model to help prioritize incidents and problems

Continual Service Improvement can also use a Service Model to help identify options for

improvement which might relate to the structure or dynamics of a service

Remember

Service Model is NOT a design; it does NOT tell you how to build a

service

A Service Model describes what the service IS and what it DOES

As the lifecycle progresses, the Service Model is used as the start point for further activities to

create the Service Design.


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Communication in Service Design The design of a service involves lots of individuals and groups from the Service Provider, the

business, and from third parties.

During Service Design, it’s important to remember that:

No single group is entirely independent of the rest; each is contributing to a greater

whole – the service

In many cases close collaboration will be needed. For example, the choice of technology

will require a contribution from both Capacity Management and Availability

Management

In other cases there will be dependencies that will need close coordination

Good communication is essential to the management of this complexity. Here are some

specific ways that communication helps:

All parties need a common understanding of what the service should deliver

Changes in business requirements must be communicated to all parties

There must be good communication and coordination between design and transition to

enable a smooth handover

Communication will ensure that the wider aims of the Service Provider are achieved by

giving all parties a common understanding of relevant IT strategies and policies

Communication will accelerate the design by ensuring that information is passed to the

appropriate party in a timely fashion

The communication of progress, achievement of milestones and delays will contribute

to a successful project

We referred in a previous lesson to the difficulty of defining just what set of activities constitute

a service. Yet this is a pretty fundamental piece of information for Service Management.

Without it how can we proceed? How can the Service Desk prioritize calls? How can Service

Level Management negotiate and manage SLA.s? How can we convince the business that we

are doing a worthwhile job?


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As part of the Service Design communication activities:

Business Relationship Management and Service Catalogue Management will work with

the business to agree exactly what each service is, and record that in the Service

Catalogue

Information in the service catalogue needs to be communicated to the business and the

Service Provider staff because it is that that defines what IT is doing for the business. By

implication, anything that is not in the catalogue is something the Service Provider has

not agreed to do. Of course that does not necessarily mean we won’t do it

Communication in Service Transition

General issues

Communication is essential to the successful transition of new or changed services.

In this course we are concerned primarily with the integration of Service Management

processes rather than the transition of individual services. However, moving towards a mature,

integrated Service Management organization will usually involve the introduction of new or

changed processes, and the modification of the working practices and perhaps the attitudes of

the staff. So, much of the advice about communication, organizational change, and stakeholder

management applies equally to the transition of new processes.

In fact, this advice also applies to Continual Service Improvement initiatives in general.

For any transition we need to communicate:

Why the change is being made. It is easier to sell change if there is some perceived

problem - if the company is on the edge of bankruptcy for example. It’s a harder sell if

we are trying to address some longer-term issue such as declining market share. People

often take quite a short term view and it’s here that effective communication is most

essential

What benefits we expect. How exactly will the organization benefit, and perhaps how

will stakeholder groups in the organization benefit

What changes will take place, and when. People dislike uncertainty


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To be successful communication must be:

Timely. You should strike a balance between starting communication too early, perhaps

before any of the detail has been finalized, and starting too late, perhaps at the same

time that the changes start to be implemented. What is ‘timely’ is of course, a matter

for the organization to judge

Communication must be targeted at the right audience. Before communication begins

we should identify possible stakeholders and where our communication should be

targeted

The communication should communicate a clear, consistent message otherwise there

will be confusion, and distrust, both of your motives and of your capability

Stakeholder management can’t be automated, it’s done by people. Potentially it can require

substantial resources, particularly if the impact of the organization is significant.

There are often many stakeholders but only limited resources to influence them so we need to

target our efforts where there will be most payback. In any organizational change context there

will be a spread of attitudes. Some people will buy in straightaway while others will be bitterly

opposed. The majority may be somewhere between those two extremes. Experience suggests

that it’s best to focus on that middle group. It’s usually a waste of time trying to persuade those

who are strongly opposed.


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Communication planning

The key thing to understand here is that communication should be approached in a formal,

systematic way. All too often it’s done in a casual, piecemeal fashion. Of course the scale and

sophistication of the communication project should be appropriate to the particular change.

You should start by determining the purpose of the communication effort. What you want to

achieve? What is your message?

Next you would work out timescales. Communication is on-going, it should begin at the start of

a change project and continue through its life. You should work out the times information will

be released.

The next stage in putting together a communication plan is deciding how to pitch the message.

If the change involves job losses, for example, then it would be a bad idea to be jokey or

informal.

Then you should think about your target audience and how you will get the message to them.

Finally, how will you judge whether your communication has been effective? You should plan to

get feedback, possibly from quizzes designed to test knowledge or understanding.


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Methods of communication

There are lots of ways we can deliver our message, each with its own benefits and limitations.

At the start it’s important to convey a single, consistent message to as much of the target

audience as possible. It’s probably best to use presentations to large groups, possibly even a

meeting of all of the staff.

Because these can be difficult to organize and do take staff away from their operational duties,

sometimes organizations have chosen to cascade information down the management

hierarchy. This can often be a mistake: some managers do not brief their staff and the message

gets changed as it cascades down.

After the kick-off event it’s possible to communicate to much smaller groups, possibly even to

individuals. This allows messages to be related to more specific concerns, and allows for

feedback.

Routine on-going communication can take place using posters, emails, the company intranet

and other media. These can be used to communicate progress and reinforce the main message.

Communication in Service Operation Most of the customer-facing activities of a Service Provider happen in the Service Operation

stage of the lifecycle. It is here that the routine tasks needed to deliver services take place. This

is also where most Service Management process activities occur.

It is in day-to-day operations that IT teams, users, business departments and suppliers

collaborate, and where their activities need to be coordinated.

Good communication enables this collaboration and coordination.

Service Operation communication must be approached in a systematic way. First you should

identify circumstances that should trigger communication. For example:

“Routine operational communication

Communication between shifts

Performance reporting

Communication in projects

Communication related to changes

Communication related to exceptions

Communication related to emergencies


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Training on new or customized processes and service designs

Communication of strategy, design and transition to service operation teams.”

For each type of communication you should work out who the communication is between. Who

should initiate it, and who is the audience?

You must also define the purpose of the communication. For example, what exactly should the

audience do as a result of receiving the information?

Finally, what information should be communicated? This of course will depend very much on

circumstances and the purpose.

There are lots of ways of communicating, the choice is yours but of course it must be effective.

Formal meetings are an essential means of communication for most organisations. To be

successful they should observe certain commonly-accepted disciplines such as:

Distribute an agenda in advance (and stick to it)

Each meeting should have a clear purpose

Record minutes and distribute them in a timely fashion

Common types of meeting include:

The operations meeting is often held at the start of each working day, and includes the

leaders of all the operational groups. Typically it discusses current issues such as

significant incidents, upcoming changes and variations to normal working

Team meetings involve a single team. They allow team leaders to pass on information to

the team, get an update about on-going work, and to be informed about any issues

Customer meetings may be a routine to discuss common concerns, issues or plans. Or

they, they may be held after a major incident or other significant service breach


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Exercise – Major Incident Communication

This lesson included an exercise to look at communication during a major incident. If you didn’t

have time to complete the exercise during the lesson, why not attempt it now?

Exercise

The bank in the case study has experienced a major incident. The internet banking site is

unavailable, and the root cause and time to restore the service are currently unknown.

What communication should take place during the lifecycle of this major incident? Think about

the purpose, content, frequency and audience.

Exercise Solution

The example solution below is taken from the Service Operation core volume.


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“Purpose The purpose of communication in an emergency is to immediately investigate

and confirm the impact and severity of the incident to confirm that it is

indeed an emergency situation. It should also confirm that this incident does

not represent a disaster or any contingency covered in the IT service

continuity plans.

As soon as the scope of the emergency has been identified, the team

responsible for managing the situation will allocate resources to create an

action plan and to begin resolving the emergency and restoring service.

Frequency This type of communication does not occur unless there is a major incident or

emergency situation.

Once an exception is detected, the frequency and content of communication

will be determined by the impact and severity of the exception, and

potentially by a service recovery plan.

Audience Incident manager

Senior managers of groups responsible for the IT staff that will be required to

resolve the situation

Business managers and executives (possibly including legal staff if the

organization is exposed to potential legal action as a result of the incident)

Customers and users

IT service continuity manager and central coordination team

Senior vendor staff and managers (depending on the extent and nature of the

situation)·

Technical management staff and managers

Application management staff and managers

IT operations management staff and managers

Content The nature and extent of the emergency

Assessment of the impact. This will typically involve communication with the


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stakeholders who are affected by the exception

Estimation and then confirmation of the cost of resolution

A decision on what action will be taken

Communication of the decision taken. This is likely to be in a number of

formats. For example the communication to customers is likely to contain an

apology and a high-level overview of what is being done to resolve the

exception. A communication to the people who are expected to resolve the

exception will be more detailed and will contain clear actions and timelines

Confirmation that the exception has been resolved

Escalation actions taken to date and next steps to be taken per the

appropriate escalation procedure

Context/sources Incident record for major incidents

Events

Crisis or emergency meetings called by the incident manager, the designated

manager, or the IT service continuity manager”

Service Operation Table B.9 communication during emergencies © Copyright AXELOS Ltd 2011. All rights reserved. Material is reproduced under license from AXELOS Ltd

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